LooseCannon's DF Diary

LooseCannon_2

Inspired by MrsB83's diary and journey, I am finally starting my own.

A brief insight into my life;

I am 31 years old, married to a lovely 28 year old girl, have two cracking kids, boy aged 5 and girl aged 2. I am fulltime and DW is part time.

We have approximately (soon to be accurate) £22000 of debt on credit cards and a loan to my parents and a sofa loan (grrrrrr).

The credit card debts have been an accumulation of two house moves and a new car.

how do I feel about this debt?....

Well it varies from month to month! Most of the time if im honest i probably bury my head in the sand with my favourite quote being, "look at man utd, they're millions in debt but if its managed correctly it isnt a problem!" I do believe this to a degree but I know my debt isnt managed as well as it could be as it isnt going DOWN!

anyway, like i said, most of the time i ignore this debt but periodically (getting more frequent now) i feel very "claustrophobic" like this debt is a very heavy burden and its dragging me down and I just need to get rid of it!!!!

So, I am going to. get rid of it I mean. I am going to do my SOA, then look at each bill to see if I can get a better deal or interest rate, then look at my budget and see if it can be contolled better or at least made more realistic at what we currently spend.

When all this is done I'll do the snowball calc and see how much(if any) I can overpay to the credit cards.

At this point I have to be honest...I have tried this before. I get very focused like I am now, but after the first couple of weeks I tend to lose my focus, and go back into the sand! This is why Im doing this diary. I apologise now for my ramblings but if it keeps me going I have to continue to babble on and on and on!

Speak later.

choogirl

Hi Loosecannon

Welcome to diary land. I've probably jinxed your diary now as I've posted on a few in the past and they've never been wrote on again!

I shall subscribe as I was also a bury a head in the sand type, lifes for living etc.

Good Luck xxx

Betty_Crumble

good luck chuck :beer:

LooseCannon_2

At long last here is my SOA (been at the folks for the afternoon)

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 300
Benefits................................ 300
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3100
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 755
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 75
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 131
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 77
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 51
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 90
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 75
Petrol/diesel........................... 70
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 20
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 35
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 33
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 49.99
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 35
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2187.36

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 175000
Shares and bonds........................ 400
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 178400

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 138831...(755)......0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 967......(75).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 139798....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclaycard....................7046.26...158.5.....0
virgin.........................5253.17...52.53.....24.9
santander 1....................3965......0.........0
santander 2....................2029......0.........30
Total unsecured debts..........18293.43..211.03....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,100
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,187.36
Available for debt repayments........... 912.64
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 211.03
Amount left after debt repayments....... 701.61
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 178,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -139,798
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,293.43
Net Assets.............................. 20,308.57

LooseCannon_2

Just thinking out loud, DW has a 0% offer on her card, and my virgin card 0% is about to end 20th Oct, is there anyway of transfering a card in my name to a card in her name?

LooseCannon_2

I have done the snowball calculation overpaying 300 a month and and a debt free date of 32months time = May 2014. Not very happy with this date to be honest. Still, if I dont get things in order now, it'll only get worse.

Im not even sure If im going to start overpaying straight away as I want to master the budget first without going over.Will have a think over night.

LooseCannon_2

Well today im off to work which is a challenge in itself these days! Ive been mulling over leaving my job to form a limtied company of my own. It is much more money but with my debts at the moment im a bit reluctant to be honest.

Anyway thats a whole new diary! today I am concentrating on moving my virgin card as the 0% finishes soon, and moving the santander balance that isnt 0%. I have enough credit on an old halifax card that has a 0% offer on and my DW has enough on her barclaycard at 0% for my the virgin.

I have also started a spending diary, one for me, and one for dw. will see what results they bring!

choogirl

LooseCannon wrote: »

Just thinking out loud, DW has a 0% offer on her card, and my virgin card 0% is about to end 20th Oct, is there anyway of transfering a card in my name to a card in her name?

Hi Loosecannon

Last year we managed to transfer the balances from 2 of my cards onto a 0% deal that DH got on barclaycard. The credit card company just contacted my DH to check that he was happy to do this and knew about it.

choogirl

Just had a quick look through your SOA - you've got a good healthy surplus there

When I started out I kept forgetting about all the little things that crop up - window cleaner etc, have you budgetted for every little item that crops up each month?
Your clothing costs look really high - can that be trimmed a little?
Can grocery costs be trimmed a little?

LooseCannon_2

Hi Choogirl

I know it says a surplus of 701 but looking back over it i have missed £95 min repayment for santander. Also when i looked over the last two months statements there was approx £325 in cash withdrawels un accounted for (not lost, just cant remember if it was for nights out,diy,lunch or shopping) so in truth our surplus ranges between 250 - 350 a month which has been overpaid to credit cards.

To see where the £325 is going we are starting a spending diary and will adjust figures/budget accordingly.

Groceries are high, but these include toiletries,cleaning products and nappies(not much longer though!)

I have transfered my santander balance so that will be 0% soon. will do the Virgin tonight with DW hopefully just in time before interest free runs out in 20 Oct.

sydneybean

good luck! will be subscribing and following your journey.